{"id":3472,"date":"2018-09-05T04:44:05","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T11:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/?p=3472"},"modified":"2018-09-05T06:30:20","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T13:30:20","slug":"hard-and-holy-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/hard-and-holy-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Hard and Holy Things"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">A Jon Post<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Have you ever watched a mother in labor? Have you watched her breathe through immense pain, strain muscles to prepare for the anguish of what she is about to do, and then put her head down and begin the hard and holy work of enduring what the curse of sin requires of her?<a href=\"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/2-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3473\" src=\"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/2-1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/2-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/2-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/2-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/2-1.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Have you ever watched a child look up a cliff face? Have you watched that child stare in wonder at the waterfall that comes down from above, marvel at the rainbow refracted off the mist in the air, then put her head down and begin the hard and holy work of climbing the cliff face, reflecting that mystery of the eternal that the Father placed in each of us to see what\u2019s at the top?<\/p>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 33%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-3472 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/cliff1.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"140\" height=\"140\" src=\"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/cliff1-140x140.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/cliff3.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"140\" height=\"140\" src=\"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/cliff3-140x140.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/cliff2.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"140\" height=\"140\" src=\"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/cliff2-140x140.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>Have you ever watched an old widow die of cancer? Watched her body fail her, her flesh begin to wilt, her pain rise above what is tolerable or humane, then see her put her head down and begin the hard and holy work of enduring what the sting of death gives, <em>but also part of the mystery of the eternal which says to climb this hard thing and get to the top?<a href=\"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_1072.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3378 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_1072-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_1072-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_1072-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_1072-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_1072.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>When that mother holds her newborn baby in her arms, the pain is not gone. Her body still trembles from its laborsong and Eve\u2019s curse still lingers for days over that mother\u2019s recovering body. The pain of childbirth is not relieved by simple birth.<\/p>\n<p>When that child reaches the top of that cliff and looks over the edge, the torrent of water still rushing over the edge singing its hymn of creation. The waterfall doesn\u2019t abate, doesn\u2019t slow, doesn\u2019t offer safety when viewed from the top, the child simply stands at the edge of dangerous places and witnesses the beauty of the difficult.<\/p>\n<p>And when the old widow finally closes her eyes for the last time, maybe\u2026 just maybe\u2026 like the beauty of the birth is made sweeter by the travails of the labor, the widow\u2019s entrance into a new home is made sweeter by the cliff face climbed through pain. Maybe, though the pain still roars by like the waterfall over the escarpment, the widow\u2019s climb can be seen as beautiful.<\/p>\n<p>There are hard and holy things that I do not understand.<\/p>\n<p>Last week Isabel lay panting on our floor looking at me. Her abdominal pain excruciating and demanding. \u201cThis is suffering\u201d she said through tears. \u201cThis hurts\u201d she said again, as she reached for another handhold up the cliff. For a moment, through the mist created by her waterfall of pain I glimpsed the spiritual light behind it creating a riot of color and beauty.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI see\u201d I responded. \u201cI see your pain.\u201d I told her as she rolled onto her side hoping for relief.<\/p>\n<p>Isabel still lives in pain here at Casa Ahav\u00e1. Her climb is not yet over, and the waterfall still rages over and through her.<\/p>\n<p>But she is near the top.<\/p>\n<p>And I believe the view from there is one of the things that you cannot see and live.<\/p>\n<p>Please pray that we support her well in her climb and that what little strength we can lend her is enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Jon Post Have you ever watched a mother in labor? Have you watched her breathe through immense pain, strain muscles to prepare for the anguish of what she is about to do, and then put her head down and begin the hard and holy work of enduring what the curse of sin requires of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,5,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3472"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3472"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3485,"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3472\/revisions\/3485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}